It’s easy not to feel blessed. We look readily for what we don’t have rather than what we do. We see people who are taller, who look better, who have more and feel deprived. Why couldn’t I have been born rich? Why couldn’t my company have gotten that contract? Why can’t I play in the NFL?
But, of course, as we are feeling sorry for ourselves, we’re not noticing that the people who were born rich, who did get the contract, who are in the NFL, are focusing on what they don’t have, too. Why is Dad never around? Why couldn’t I get paid more? Why didn’t I make the Pro Bowl?
Seneca knew these feelings firsthand, seeing as how he was born to a wealthy family, achieved great things, and yet also struggled—with debilitating illnesses, with exile, with comparing himself to other more successful people. For all his literary fame, for all his influence in Nero’s court, for the beautiful estate he owned, tended by slaves, we can imagine him feeling frustrated, just like we are, fantasizing about a life where things are even easier, even more rewarding. “Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth,” he said, quoting Epicurus, “is unhappy, though he may be master of the whole world.”
What a miserable way to live. And how unnecessary! Today, you need to stop and look at what you have, not at what you lack. Count where you have been lucky, look at what has gone your way. Consider how many people who would kill to be where you are, to have been given the life that you have. “Unblest is he who thinks himself unblest,” Seneca reminded Lucilius. It’s a line from some unknown poet, but it’s true. You are blessed. Think it and it will become more so.
You are blessed. Don’t forget it. Don’t be unhappy.
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